Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger is a multi-generational story that drew me in immediately. I loved this wonderful novel with excellent character development that focuses on women.

If you are a fan of women’s fiction that tells the story of women from generation to generation and talks about the secrets sec? Like Mother, Like Mother is the next book for you.

I adored this novel about mothers and daughters and secrets and relationships. So well written and depth full. 5 stars.

I was invited to read this book and am thankful for the opportunity. Reading through the mystery on this book to find out what really happened to Zelda was the main element that kept me interested. The characters were quire interesting, but I felt that the dialogue was a little chaotic. I tried throughout the book but it just felt not cohesive. Not sure if the edit grammatically adds to this. I was also not too thrilled about the political notes found in the book.

Im sorry that I had a hard time with this book because I really wanted to like it.

In Like Mother, Like Mother, we have the story of three generations of women, told from the perspective of 2 of them. Lila Pereira was 2 years old when her abusive father committed her mother Zelda to an asylum in Detroit, and then 6 years old when she is told that her mother has died while in the asylum. Lila never looks back, and escapes Detroit and her father, becoming a powerful woman in the world of journalism, unapologetic about her lack of mothering skills. Grace Meier is Lila's youngest daughter, resents her mother for choosing her career over her family, writes a novelization of her mother's life, which is published shortly before Lila's death.
As the book explores first Lila's life as a child, then young adult, etc, we learn more about the abuse and trauma she withstood, and why she made the choice to distance herself as a mother and focus on her own career. After Lila's death, Grace is left with the mystery of Zelda's death or disappearance and comes to understand her mother better, while exploring the generational trauma she is left with.
The characterizations of this novel were well done, and while Grace and Lila are very similar in their personalities, they had their own distinct voices. I thought it was well done how the book explores how we deal with familial trauma, as Grace runs from her problems, and Lila confronts them head on. By the end of the novel, Grace shows strong character development and is able to obtain a better understanding and sympathy for her mother and the choices that she made.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Lila Pereira is only two years old in 1960. It would be the last time she ever saw her mother. Her father told her she is in a mental asylum and later tells her that her mother is dead and buried.

Lila couldn’t wait to be out of her father’s rule. A mean man who beat all of them, but Lila got out.

A beautiful girl with a lot of ambition, she becomes a legend in the reporting world. But Lila never learned how to be a mother and had no interest in being one. She marries Joe and he is good at raising children.

Lila has a one track mind and it isn’t on her family. Her youngest, Grace, resents her mother and yet follows in her footsteps. Even writing a book and that is when she realizes she knows none of her family story. As she sets out to find the truth she finds a lot of lies that were told to get her mother where she landed.


NetGalley/ RHPG/Dial October 29, 2024

This book is calisthenics for the brain. The rapid fire volley of dialogue, proposed reading lists for characters, mentions of actual events and characters had me googling and stopping for a breath every few chapters. At its heart, Like Mother, Like Mother explores the tenuous relationship between Grace and Lila, who was raised by an abusive father and believed her mother to be dead. Not knowing or wanting to know how to parent, she leaves the rearing of her daughters to her husband Joe and nannies. As a result, Grace resents her mother and loves her father, whom she resembles. But we see Lila’s traits in her, and these help her become a journalist, like her mother. Her quest for truth leads her to search for her grandmother Zelda because she questions if she really died. Full of deeply developed characters, heartbreaking relationships, and enough mystery to keep you reading, this novel shows the messiness of family and the undeniable bonds that permeate these relationships.
Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press for the advanced copy to read.

Interesting, but a bit uneven story which begins in 1960 when Lila Pereira is two years old and her father has her mother committed to an insane asylum. Lila never sees her again.

Cut to thirty years later. Lila is the executive editor of the Washington Globe and has the world at her feet. She has three daughters, Stella, Ava and Grace, but she largely allows them to be raised by her husband, Joe. This arrangement works fine. Until it doesn’t.

Daughter Grace resents Lila and longs for a hands on mom who will do PTA meetings and be there for after school talks. However, Lila’s life also shapes Grace’s and she becomes a writer, eventually writing a roman a clef about her mother, which posits that Lila’s mother did not die in the asylum as Lila has always understood.

So, lots going on here, and while the author is generally successful with keeping all these balls up it can be choppy at times. The book also focuses on Grace, and I found Lila far more intriguing. Also, this is one of THOSE books/authors who believe that only a few cities, a few schools, a few people actually matter; if you don’t live in/didn’t go to/are not one of them you are a useless mouth breather. I hate those people.

Oh, and Ruth? Far too good to actually exist. I preferred Grace in her unlikeablity. So, it was, OK, I guess. But I didn’t go to Harvard, so my opinion doesn’t count anyway.

This is a well-done multigenerational book that has a perfect layout. It shows you how the thread between the past, present, and future is both strong yet possibly easily broken. Yet, it certainly plays into the old trope that you can pick your friends but not your family. While I was sad I didn't have enough time to read this in one sitting, it was easy enough to return to the storyline quickly. The title was made clear by the end of the book.

A great story, though the interweaving of characters and their stories was sometimes too jumbled. I kept through with it because I liked the interactions between the mother and youngest daughter, the mother’s approach to motherhood (leaving it to her husband!), the president Webb, who had some parallels in US History, and so much more. Well worth the read!

I recently read Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger. This is a story about families. Specifically, we follow Zelda, Lila and Grace. Zelda is the grandmother, we learn about her while she is young, has children and an abusive husband. One day her husband has Zelda hauled off to an asylum. He tells the children the difficult news, later following up with the fact that she has died there. We then encounter her daughter, Lila, grown up and a woman with power. She runs a major newspaper in Washington. Married to her work, her children and husband suffer. Finally, we follow Lila's daughter Grace. Grace resents her mother's career and the attention that it stole from her. There is a bit of a mystery that, once answered, really emphasizes the practices and traits that are passed down. Are those actions repeated from generation to generation or purposefully changed?

I read books of all kinds but primarily thrillers. Sadly, although my favorite to purchase and read, thriller stories become hard for me to remember. Ultimately, most years my favorite book is not a thriller but something far more character driven. Like Mother, Like Mother may be my favorite for the year. The writing is wonderful, telling the story fully but without dwelling on the unnecessary. The characters, well, I don't think I'll ever forget them. If you can finish this book without shedding sad and happy tears, then you have far more control than I do. Enthralling from beginning to end, I loved every second.

Many, MANY, thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. You made my reading year!

I requested this book because I liked the description. What I didn't realize was that I would absolutely love the book from beginning to end! Susan Rieger's carefully and thoughtfully crafted novel takes the reader through all of the emotions: love, hate, friendship, ambition, sacrifice, loss (and being lost), abuse, neglect, nurturing, resentment, laughter, and tears. The characters and story lines are so well written that you feel as though you have grown up with them and have known them all your life. You feel as though your are in the Pereira home in Detroit as you read about the early lives of Polo, Clara, and Lila.

Lila's story hits you in the gut and you find yourself hoping that someday she realizes that she is a strong, caring woman who made a straight flush out of the hand she was dealt from birth while acknowledging her lack of parenting skills. . While so many stories revolve around "absentee fathers" Rieger goes out on a limb and tells the generational story of "absentee mothers" while tying in mental health. Even while you are reading this, you have to root for and cheer on Lila, Zelda, Grace, and all the other flawed moms of the world. Nature versus nurture? A character flaw? All or none of the above?

When Lila is 2 years old her mother Zelda goes missing. Her abusive father told her and her siblings that he had his wife committed to an insane asylum. As the story unfolds the mystery of what happened to Zelda affects Lila’s parenting skills, as well as her children’s relationship with her and ultimately her grandchildren’s. Searching for the truth comes at a price. I found this to be a very slow buildup and almost abandoned it several times. In the end I was glad that I stuck with it. This ARC was provided by the Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Susan Rieger’s third novel is a multi-generational story with a backstory that is difficult to read. There are some triggers that readers should be aware of: primarily, child abuse and domestic violence, but also grief and loss. It is also the story of some very strong-willed women, and how they do—or don’t—balance family life and work. It is very well written, the dialogue is fresh and authentic. The story draws you in from the very first two sentences:
“Lila Pereira died on the front page of The Washington Globe. She also died on the front page of The New York Times, astonishing and gratifying The Globe’s publisher, Doug Marshall.”

The characters are all (or nearly all) well-developed, even though there are quite a few names to remember. The author has kindly given a list of the characters at the start of the book, and it includes how they connect with the main characters of the novel.

I loved this book. I couldn’t wait to get back to my Kindle throughout the day to read more, and I stayed up way too late two nights in a row because I just couldn’t put it down. If you enjoyed Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, I think you will also enjoy this one. One reviewer on Goodreads said that she will be “thinking about Lila, Grace, and Zelda for a long time.” I feel exactly the same way, but most of all, I keep thinking about how I can capture that same exact feeling and transfer it to my own writing. Susan Rieger, do you offer any writing workshops? Please get in touch if you do!

Thank you to NetGalley and Will Lyman of Random House Publishing for the ARC of this new novel! I really, really loved reading it and I am so happy to have discovered Susan Rieger’s work! I can’t wait to read her other two novels.
Like Mother, Like Mother will be published and out for sale on October 29, 2024!

Like Mother, Like Mother is a very well written multigenerational story about children living with an abusive father and an absent mother. Its characters are well developed and interesting as we are included in how they have survived and developed. There are so many intricate parts to this story that will hold your interest from beginning to end. It is wise, compelling, compassionate and thought provoking. I highly recommend reading it!!

4.5 stars for this amazing family (women) drama filled with so many emotions. This book grew and grew on me with every chapter. It started off a bit slow and I was worried it had too many characters when at the very beginning there is a "Cast of Characters." But with every chapter I was more and more invested in each of these "characters."

I loved that the matriarch, Lila, was unapologetically a strong feminist who knew what she wanted and created her own story of her life the way she wanted it (in a time when men ruled almost everything) and despite a very hard upbringing. I loved that she became a mom in name but in her generation she was more the dad than the mom - her husband was more mom to their kids in the traditional sense.

The book is divided into three strong female women and goes into depth about what each woman went thru to become who they are today. It was shocking to read about how Lila's father treated not only his wife, but his children as well.

This is such an in-depth read about three generations of women who each are strong in their own ways; it's a story about how each marriage can be so different from another's but what is important is whether it works for the husband and wife; it's a story about how parents can harm their children not just physically but emotionally; it's a story about love and the bonds of family and deep friendships.

This is a story to be read in a cozy chair because you'll get lost in the story of these women and time will pass and you are still sitting there reading, wanting to know these women so badly.

Thank you to NetGalley, The Dial Press and Susan Rieger for this emotional journey of women.

Well when I first started this book I thought it was a little slow but boy did it pick up. This novel is about three generations of mothers. The first generation is exposed to unspeakable abuse by her husband and how her actions effect later generations that follow. Zelda has married Aldo who has abused her physically until she breaks totally down. He places her in an asylum and he tells his kids she has died, But did she? Aldo in turn abuses his children and they cannot imagine a world where their mother would choose to leave them with Aldo. Lila tries to deflect the abuse from her siblings. But she runs also as soon as opportunity happens. Years pass and her daughter Grace decides to write a book about her family. She then decides to find out exactly what happened to Zelda. As the story builds the book becomes impossible to put down. I loved it.

Lila is a successful executive editor of The Washington Globe who is solely focused on her career, leaving parenting duties to her husband, Joe. Her youngest daughter, Grace, balks at this and feels rejected by her mother's lack of attention. We learn that much of Lila's parenting style may have been a result of her own mother's disappearance and her father's abuse. Did Lila's mother die in an asylum, as her father asserted? Or did she run away from him as well as Lila and her sister? Does history always repeat itself in parenting styles? This family drama story unfolds in a raw and honest way, making no apologies for motherly behavior that is quite different from the norm. Over the course of the book, I came to better understand each character and root for them. This is a highly engaging story. Thank you, NetGalley, for the advanced reader copy.

I really enjoyed this multigenerational story, mainly because the women were such strong smart and interesting characters. My only quibble is there are so many people in the book that I frequently had to consult the extremely helpful “Cast of Characters” in the front of the novel. But what does it say when there are so many characters that the author feels it necessary to include a list of them? Beyond that, the writing is superb; the story — basically split into three parts told from the points of view of Lila; her youngest daughter, Grace, and Lila’s mother, Zelda — kept my interest. This would make an excellent book club read.

Like mother like mother Is a challenging read because of all the generations of families that encompass the book... It's the story Of lives that are affected by cruelty and abuse and much disappointment but yet love and care and caring. As I got into the book It became more interesting and I enjoyed it to the fullest.